The Expo '70 World's Fair has come to Japan, with countries from all over the globe contributing exhibitions. But for the centrepiece of the Wester Islands presentation, the organisers want to showcase a large statue which must be transported across the sea by helicopter, all this in spite of the Island's representative claiming this is a bad idea. And how right he is, for once the statue is uprooted and taken away, there are strange rumblings and a huge monster erupts from the site: Jiger, who is now free to destroy everything in her path...
That's right, the creature this time around for this, the sixth Gamera movie, was a female, which looks to be of little significance until a late on twist which sees the heroic giant turtle incapacitated for a long stretch. At least by this stage series author Nisan Takahashi was showing no signs of a flagging imagination, even if now he was bringing in other inspirations for his material, chiefly in this case the unlikely Fantastic Voyage. Gamera shows up early on to make it plain he's not keen on the whole uprooting the statue idea, and you can guess what kind of confrontation that leads to.
Naturally there were a trio of child performers to provide someone for the target audience of the day to identify with, consisting of Japanese boy Hiroshi (Tsutomu Takakuwa), his best friend Tommy (Kelly Varis) and his sister Susan (Katherine Murphy), an especially grave-looking child whose serious visage director Noriaki Yuasa often placed in the middle of the frame, as if daring the viewer to point out that this was ridiculous and deny this little girl her belief in benevolent giant turtles. It is these kids who hold the key to saving the day, perceiving things about the tense situation that the adults have difficulty grasping.
The message being listen to the children, grown-ups, they may understand more than you expect, and also can pilot a minisub which can enter the body of a huge reptile. That's the part everyone who has seen this recalls, as Jiger employs a novel method of defeating him by impregnating him with her tail, or placing an egg inside him at any rate which puts paid to his heretofore effective foiling of her plans, the bit where she fires spears through his limbs notwithstanding. With the big guy's face and left foreleg turning off-colour, the humans watching aghast sense something is amiss, but Hiroshi cannot believe that he is dead.
Which led to the other message, trust in science as for a while the populace think they've been cursed, what with the statue emitting a whining noise that makes whoever hears it rather unwell. The film refutes such superstition with cold reason, and part of that is when Hiroshi and Tommy enter Gamera through his mouth to track down the source of his infection. We know it's an infection because the head boffin has worked with an elephant with an infected trunk before, and even has a home movie of him cutting it open and worms oozing out - no wonder everyone present goes "ewww", you will too. Don't expect quite the level of sophistication that Fantastic Voyage achieved, as Gamera turns out to be hollow enough for the boys to get out of the sub and walk around where they meet an sticky substance-ejaculating mini-Jiger (her parent has a magic nose to lay waste to the landscape). Can the day - and the Expo - be saved? What do you think? Music by Shunsuke Kikuchi.
This is the best of the late gamera films. it's serious like the first 2, but campy and fun like guiron and gyaos. I wish i knew how the Jiger costum was made. The quadrepedal walking is awesome, better than any other kaiju i've ever seen.
Posted by:
Graeme Clark
Date:
19 Nov 2011
There is a good costume for Jiger, there's presumably somebody walking on all fours inside it, but it doesn't look as awkward as you'd expect.
Posted by:
Andrew Pragasam
Date:
30 Jan 2012
Absolutely the best entry in the original series: inventive, funny, gross. Sheer exuberant fun. Expo 70 was actually a major cultural touchstone for a generation of young Japanese kids. It was organized by avant-garde artist and critic Taro Okamoto who designed the iconic Tower of the Sun sculpture that took centre-stage. Many of Expo 70's ideas and images resonated with kids that grew up to be artists, manga creators and filmmakers. I like to think Hiroshi, Tommy and Susan took something profound away from it too.
Posted by:
Stephanie Anderson
Date:
6 Feb 2012
I tried to find out more about the costume but there ziltch on it. I'd swear it had a dog in it sometimes because theres no way thats a man in a suit unless hes some horrible mutant, or has a special walking aparatus. I think the arms may have had wood in them so the actors arms could work properly, the wood acting to extend his reach towards the ground.
The kids in this one weren't as grating as the children throughout
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